Filmmaker David Cronenberg has dispelled the myth he and his wife had sex in front of the cast of A History Of Violence to help them perfect a rough love scene, insisting it was a story he and his leading man Viggo Mortensen made up. Promoting the 2005 film, Mortensen told reporters and TV interviewers that the maverick director had got down and dirty with his wife right in front of him and Maria Bello to show them how he wanted them to sex it up in front of the cameras.

But the controversial auteur has revealed the story was a lie.

Cronenberg tells The Hollywood Reporter, “When you are on the road doing publicity, you get very bored because people ask you the same questions, so Viggo and I spontaneously started to say outrageous things.

“Viggo said, ‘I really didn’t know how to do this sex scene on the stairs, so David said, I’ll show you with my wife, because we do this all the time.’ It was totally not true.

“But I said, ‘Yeah, you have to give your actor whatever help you can give him.'”